Kathdar IV
by MrBartek16
Summary: Plague fleet under the command of Typhus champion of Nurgle attacked the imperial world of Kathdar IV.
1. Prologue

The hive-world of Kathdar IV was a calm place located on the edge of the Imperium. It hasn`t been attacked for nearly 1000 years. Sirius a simple citizen was returning from work to his family. He was a worker in the ammunition factory, one of many that supply the imperial guard stationed here. Most of the regiments created on this planet have been sent to other worlds to fight in the name of the Emperor and to protect other planets. But due, to its location a few of them were stationed on the planet. Sirius was already close to his home and he couldn`t wait to spend some time with his family after 15 hours of work . Unusually for him he found himself gazing at the sky of his homeworld. It was covered in sickly yellow clouds, the atmosphere was very toxic, it was hard to breathe and the air smelled of sulfur, coal, and acid. He was so focused on this he accidentally walked into someone. At first he felt fear , because he thought that it was someone important, some noble, a comissar or an adeptus arbites. He had a family to take care of and he didn`t want to die or be turned into a servitor. His fear momentarily ceased to exist as he saw that it`s his old friend Eyron. They knew each other since childhood, but they haven`t seen each other for a long time.

It`s nice to see you again Sirius, how`s life going?- asked Eyron.

Since I got a promotion in the factory it`s good, at least we have enough to sustain ourselves - answered Sirius.

So how about we celebrate at my house, I`ll get my best hooch for the party - suggested Eyron.

Shh, don`t say that so loud – Sirius chastised his friend as he saw a commisar in the distance. Eyron was always wild and free-spirited, but very uncareful.

I can`t today , I promised my wife I`ll spend some time with the kids – answered Sirius.

What a pity, well there`s always tommorow - Said Eyron.

After that they said goodbye to each other and went in opposite directions. Sirius once again looked to the sky , but this time he saw a spaceship emerging through the clouds. At first glance he saw that it isn`t an imperial ship , it looked rotten and corrupted. It was covered in green fungi and spores , some parts of it loked as if they were made of decaying , rotten flesh. It was acompanied by swarms of what looked to be some kind of flies. His nose was already attacked by the odour of decay that came with , the smell of death.

Then he saw more ships , smaller in size , but equally corrupted. Immediately he thought that the peace that has reigned on his planet for so long has come to an end , and after that he heard a sound of thousands of flies coming to the surface of the planet. Now he wasn`t there will be tommorow.


	2. Typhus 1

Typhus was standing on the bridge of his flagship the Terminus Est. He felt immense joy at what he could experience through his psychic link with his ship, they managed to surprise the defences of the planet, most of the machinery able to defend the sky of Kathdar IV was destroyed during the bombardment by his plague fleet. On the surface he could feel the destroyer hive infesting more and more people. Those who became infested would become horifyingly bloated because of the eggs layed inside of them, and after a while they burst with new flies to aid in this conquest. It has only been a few hours but he has already claimed tens of thousands people for papa Nurgle. He couldn`t wait for when they will come to the surface to bring more gifts of their god to the people of Kathdar IV, but he needed to be careful, with the return of Mortarion he couldn`t be sure of the loyalty of his plague fleet`s champions.

„That fool has been doing nothing for the last 10 millenia while I have been spreading the gifts and joy of Nurgle all that time" - thought Typhus.

He hated his primarch with a passion, but some of his underlings might have already pledged their allegiance to him and were plotting behind his back. Necrontius was a plague champion who commanded the battleship known as the bloated death, Typhus was sure that he`d gladly betray him and take his place as the most powerfull mortal, as if that adjective could still describe him, champion of Nurgle. There was also Caorpudon, once one of the first to pledge their allegiance to him and spread diseases all around the galaxy, but he has now regained faith in their primarch and he probably thinks that killing him would make him rank up in the legion.

„Oh, how the mighty have fallen" – lamented in his thoughts Typhus.

„They still can`t see that their ambition and unfaithfullnes does not fit a servant of Nurgle" - thought Typhus.

„I am still papa`s most favoured son, while they and Mortarion are merely his pawns" - thought Typhus.

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of his second-in-command Kygor. He was a true follower of the plague god and Typhus trusted him, he along with four other plague marines fought directly alongside him. He was a bloated and corrupted man, he walked in his old corroded terminator armour that proudly showed the gifts that Nurgle gave him. He had three eyes, his skin was grey and decaying, from his chest soaked many toxins.

„Warriors on this and many other ships are getting impatient, they want to spread death and decay upon this world, my lord" - said Kygor.

Typhus looked at his old friend and after a short pause gave him instructions.

„Send orders to Necrontius and Caorpadon, they will attack Katr" - ordered Typhus.

„What about the others?" - asked Kygor.

„I`ll tell them directly" - answered Typhus.

After that he used his psychic powers to transmit his voice to other ships in his plague fleet. He made sure that all the warriors were able to hear it.

„Warriors and champions of the plague god hear my call!" - shouted Typhus.

„Today we will take this planet, we will bring death and plagues upon its population, we will bring down and desecrate the statues and cathedrals of the false emperor! - shouted Typhus.

He could hear the shouts and roars of his warriors as he was speaking, even now he could feel the presence of Nurgle guiding him.

„We will spread the gifts of papa Nurgle to the heart of the planet itself and corrupt it for eternity! - once more shouted Typhus.

He could already feel the warriors were ready, but he felt he needed to add just one thing.

„Death to the false emperor!" - roared triumphantly Typhus.

His roar was met with an equally wild and ecstatic answer from his normally silent warriors. He was sure they wanted to bring ruin to this world. After that he ended transmitting his voice.

„Now it`s time descend on the surface" - he said to Kygor and was met with a wide grin on his friend`s face.

„There will be no tommorow for this planet" - answered Kygor


	3. Sirius 1

Sirius was nervous, he was conscripted and now he was building the barricades before the heretics come. He didn`t want to be pessimistic about their situation, he could be killed because of his lack of faith, but even if they brought all they had to defend their planet he wasn`t sure it was enough. There were five hive-cities on Kathdar IV, between them was only wasteland and some mining outposts that supported the local industry. Traitors have already taken control of two of them, Rakat and Sotar. They were hit the hardest by the bombardment and those flies that came with them, by the time the main forces of the enemy came to the surface there was no-one to resist them. From what he heard Katr and Araro were also under attack by a split force of the traitors, but the worst he has heard were that the main forces of the enemies were coming to take their hive-city. The only good thing was that his family was safe, for now at least. He knew that if they will fall his family will die, it was the only thing that strengthened his resolve. That and all the forces defending with them, they brought hundreds of leman russ battle-tanks, bassilisks, heavy weapons teams, stormtroopers and he heard that the people in command of the defense have called for reinforcements. Their barricade was ready, or at least he hoped it was ready, if they lost this street the enemy will have acces to the centre and if that happens defeat was certain. Their commander was captain Sidrei Konotov a veteran of many fights and a competent leader. He made sure we knew what to do and that our morale was high.

„From now on all of you are soldiers of the imperium, your objective is to hold ground against the heretics that attacked our planet and seek to claim it in the name of their dark gods, remember that in this city there are your families and friends, think of them if your resolve falters!" - shouted their captain.

„The situation may look grim, but remember that the God-Emperor is always with us, and with him on our side who can defeat us?" - asked rhetorically captain Konotov.

„No one!" - that was their answer.

„Good answer, and make sure that you don`t fail him!" - the captain told them.

„Take your positions and don`t even step back!" - ordered captain Konotov and they did exactly that. Sirius was standing behind the barricade ready to kill in the name of the God-Emperor. He couldn`t see or hear the enemy yet, but their foul smell was overflowing his nose. He knew it was only a matter of time before the real battle would begin. After a few minutes he could not only smell them but see them, there were many of those little, vile and loathsome demons, along with many of the bigger ones that had one or tree eye and their bowels were sticking out of their stomachs. They were accompanied by the twisted and corrupted space marines, once the defenders of humanity, now bloated and full of diseases, wanting only to bring ruin to the imperium.

„Don`t shoot yet, wait for my order!" - shouted captain Konotov.

They were coming closer and closer, the sight of such a force coming at them was terrifying, but Sirius had faith in the God-Emperor. They were already in the range of the artillery and everyone was ready to shoot .

„Everyone fire!" - ordered captain Konotov.

In the blink of an eye the heretics felt the power of the guardsmen defending their planet. They were hit with many lascarbines, plasma guns, rockets and the artillery shattered their formation while the tanks supported the infantry. They were hit hard but it wasn`t enough, they retaliated by firing their bolters and plasma guns at the guardsmen and every hit meant one guardsman less. Both sides were consistently taking loses, but the defenders had heavier guns and their enemies underestimated them, they didn`t bring any vechicles or heavy-hitters. Despite that they managed to make it to the barricade. They were charging at them prepared for close-combat, so the guardsmen on the front fixed their bayonets. Then started the melee combat. They were brutal and powerfull. The man in front of Sirius got sliced in half with but a swing of the traitors blade. Fortunately for him they were rather slow, so when the corrupted space marine came for him he managed to jump to the left and his blade missed him. He even managed to attack him with a bayonet, but it didn`t do much. He felt extremely lucky, because when his enemy took another swing he was shot with a plasma gun. The shot managed to kill him. When the heretic fell to the ground Sirius saw that they managed to defeat the attackers. Unfortunately he also saw that most of the guardsmen that were behind the barricades were dead. Their horribly mutilated bodies were laying everywere.

„Soldiers, you did great!" - said captain Konotov.

„I`m sure that the God-Emperor smiles at us, but remember that was merely the begining." - told them their captain.


	4. Typhus 2

Typhus was very pleased with the situation, he and his companions were breaking one of the defence lines. Aside from his personal companions he brought many other plague marines, plaguebearers and plagueburst crawlers, it was way too much for this operation, but that`s all according to his strategy. He will take those who he was sure were loyal and deprive those who were untrustworthy of the best equipment. They were meant to die, and they did exactly what he expected. There was still the question of the plague champions sent to Katr, but taking care of unloyal elements within his personal ship and loyal ships was top priority.

„Nothing can go wrong, after all I have much experience in such tasks" - thought Typhus as he sliced a guardsman in half with his manreaper.

„It`s almost too easy" - thought Typhus as only his presence was really required for this as it was toxic to those simple humans, not to mention the destroyer hive that he was carrying.

He paused for a moment just to look at the slaughter that was everywhere, his companions were slicing through the guardsmen with the help of the plaguebearers and fire support of the rest. The blight launchers were really efective as they covered them in the acidic fluids that carried Nurgle`s gifts. In all of this carnage Typhus lost the track of time as he was enjoying the view and he didn`t see a lone guardsman charging at him.

„Die heretic!" - shouted the brave man as he attacked Typhus, but a bayonet was not enough.

Typhus stopped watching the view when the man stabbed him with the bayonet. He simply looked at the man, it was enough to crush his spirit. The guardsman who few seconds ago bravely charged at him was reduced to a trembling mess, so he just catched his head into his giant hand. It only took a short while before his skin started taking a yellow color, then parts of it started to rot, through the holes that started appearing his bowels could be seen before they too rotted away. In the end there only stood a deformed skeleton, it didn`t even look like it belonged to a human.

„I wonder if my skeleton looks similar, do I even still have one?" - thought Typhus.

Unfortunately he didn`t have time to be curious, he had a planet to conquer. He took his manreaper with both hands and charged at the guardsmen. In a moment the number of the guardsmen dropped drastically. But still they refused to retreat.

„Stand your ground people, retreat is treachery!" - shouted their captain.

At that moment Typhus understood how to break the enemy defences. He quickly communicated with Kygor and his other companions using his psionic abilities to ensure they knew their role in his plan. They advanced to the center, were behind a squad of conscripts, guessing from their inexperience, stood their leader who was motivating them with his speeches and threats. They didn`t even know what got them. In the blink of an eye a whole squad was reduced to shreds. Their captain stopped his shouting and stood in fear as he seen his imminent demise. Typhus readied his manreaper and attacked the captain. Unexpectedly his opponent dodged his blow with his power sword. Seeing an opening in Typhus`s defence he swinged his weapon at the champion of Nurgle`s head. Miraculously just before the captain hit Typhus, Kygor intercepted the blow with his plague sword. Typhus immediately took another swing with his weapon and this time he sliced his torso from the rest of his body. That sight was enough to finally break the defences. Guardsmen retreated in fear, meanwhile the silent forces of the plague god pursued them. Typhus was ecstatic, now they could advance into the city. Bringing papa Nurgle`s gifts to the citizens and to the defenders will make him closer to his ultimate goal. His forces have already taken a large portion of the road, cutting down the retreating guardsmen as they advanced. His good mood was ruined as he heard a loud explosion. Imperial forces have detonated the explosives in a nearby building. It fell on the road, the rubble made it impossible to walk through and under it layed the retreating guardsmen and many of his warriors. Now he was furious. They didn`t have time to clean it, they needed a new way inside. Mayhaps the other loyal warriors have been succesfull, as he was the disloyal were dead. But if the taking of Katr go better he`ll need his last advantage.


	5. Nerat 1

Nerat was walking through the ruined buildings of Katr. He was ordered to search for the remnants of the imperial guard hiding after they made it inside the hive-city. The fate of those that were found was entirely up to him, but still he felt disapointed. They were just normal humans, blind to the gifts that papa Nurgle could grant them for their faith. He felt joy when he was spreading the plagues he maintained and perfected for his god, but deep inside he felt a lack of guidance as the plague champions he served strayed far away from their god. Their ambition and loyalty to Mortarion were more important than papa Nurgle. Despite this he was still conflicted, Typhus was faithfull only to Nurgle and he knew that their purpose was one and the same, but he wasn`t sure if he should go with his plan or stay loyal to the champion he fought for since many millenia. His role in this plan was to undermine the efforts of the champions sent to Katr and if it was neccesary get rid of them. He thought about it many times already, but his allegiance was stil unsure. On one hand he was a member of thr death guard, but on the other he pledged his soul and skills as an apothecary to Nurgle and served him as a plague surgeon. He still debated in his head over this argument when he heard something. Someone was hiding in here, the noise came from behind the wall so Nerat didn`t bother to go through the door, instead he punched a hole and came through it. In there he saw an imperial guardsman trying to hide behind the rubble, judging from his uniform he was not a regular frontline soldier but a commisar. The unfortunate commisar had no time to react as Nerat reached for him and put his corrupted narthecium next to his head.

„Luckily for you I need a bit of information, if you provide me with certain info you`ll live" - said Nerat.

„I won`t say anything you heretic!" - shouted the commisar.

Nerat was not going to be gentle and patient with him he needed to reasses the situation in this hive-city and the main one, he still thought about the plan and he knew he needed to decide on his side. He hoped, even if it`s the domain of Tzeentch, that it will help him make up his mind.

„I beg to disagree" - said Nerat as he lowered his narthecium and started to drill into his collarbone.

Despite the immense pain the commisar still refused to speak to him, so he pressed harder. He could feel how his flesh and bone was reduced to shreds due to his skill with the corrupted narthecium.

„I`ll tell you whatever you want!" - the commisar shouted after a while.

„Then tell me about the situation in northern Katr, did your defence prove enough for our forces? - asked Nerat as he lacked any information about the wereabouts of Necrontius, even though he was his second in command, and he knew nothing about Caorpudon`s situation other than he was attacking from the north-east.

„Our defences have been broken in two places, their defenders have been killed and they made icons and offerings out of their corpses" - said the commisar and sparkled Nerat`s curiosity with those icons, if they made icons and offerings to Nurgle maybe they weren`t so detached from Papa.

„How did these icons look?" - asked Nerat as he wanted to be sure about them.

„There was a skull in some sort of circles" - said the commisar.

Nerat was shocked. That was their symbol before they started to worship Nurgle. Now he was sure who he should serve, there could not exist a clearer sign they were on Mortarion`s side. Now there was just one thing he needed to know.

„Were do you plan to make your last stand?" - asked Nerat as he was sure they knew there was no hope for them, and there should be Necrontius.

The commisar wasn`t willing to give him this information so easily, so Nerat lowered his narthecium to the commisar`s ribcage and started drilling. He broke the man in just a moment.

„In the cathedral of the Master of mankind!" - answered the broken commisar.

Nerat now had all the answers he sought. The commisar was of no use to him now, but he said he`d live and Papa Nurgle valued honesty. So he put his hand upon his face. He could feel all the plagues going from his body to the commisar. In but a moment his skin became sickly yellow and full of holes, his hair became grey and his uniform was unrecognizable. Nerat remained true to his words, the commisar will live, even if as a poxwalker. Now he needed to reunite with his squad and make haste to the cathedral. He had faithless fools to dispose of.


	6. Sirius 2

Sirius was once again waiting behind the barricades. This time however he wasn`t amongst the first line of defenders. After the last battle due to heavy losses and the lack of man he was given a better weapon, a plasma gun and orders to support the conscripts in the front. All of this was thanks to his luck as he simply survived the enemy assault while being a first line soldier with no battle experience. Even if his personal situation improved the overall situation of the hive-city and the whole planet wasn`t looking so good. There remained only two hive-cities under imperial control and there wasn`t much hope for Katr. Heretics have already taken most of it, and defenders of the city were preparing for their last stand. His city, Koron was in a better position, the defenders managed to repel the traitors and control the entrances to the city. Only one of their lines of defence was broken, but thanks to the Emperor the stormtroopers detonated the demolition charges and denied them entrance. Now those squads of stormtroopers have been relocated to other places, one of them was now ordered to defend the place where Sirius was located. Their skill was unquestionable but he heard that the rubble that denied the heretics entrance fell upon the retreating guardsmen, and they haven`t shown any regret or guilt for that. He knew why they did that and that they had orders, but stil if lives of those guardsmen could be considered expendable, then…

Sirius was taken out of his thoughts when someone aproached him and his squad and grabbed their attention by whistling at them. The stranger looked friendly despite a few scars adorning his face. Still he could see the unbreakable will to fight in his grey eyes, and then he recognized where he had seen his uniform. That man was a stormtrooper.

„Hello there soldiers, I`m Cottirus Nenti and I have been asigned by your captain to lead you in the upcoming battle with the heretics" - said the stormtrooper.

He was rather confident about their situation and it was having a positive effect on Sirius and the others. If he was sure of their victory despite all ods he either knew something the rest did not or he was indeed a very brave man. It`s a shame that the positive effect of their squad leader could do nothing for those who have gone sick since the enemy attacked, their sickness was unnatural and severe, there was no hope for them. They have already lost hundreds to that blasphemous disease the plague marines brought upon this planet. People were worried that even if the invaders were repelled Kathdar IV would be corrupted. It`s because of such things that their commanders kept a close eye on all the news that went to the civilians hidden in the bunkers, they couldn`t know about the dire situation of the defenders and the power of those heretics. They were also running out of supplies as most of the weapons and ammunition produced on the planet was sent to regiments on different planets. Due to being cut off from other hive-cities, that were already taken, and mining outposts production rates got lower by about 30%. Now Sirius thought that the stormtrooper could also be putting a facade. He wanted to test him.

„Excuse me sir, but I have a question" - said Sirius.

„Just ask soldier, there`s no need to be so formal" - answered Cottirus.

„What do you expect from us, I mean that most of us are conscripts, we only got a basic training when the heretics arrived?" - asked Sirius.

„Our task is to give fire support where it is needed, whenever enemies get too close to some barricade we help the frontline battalions with our plasma guns" - answered Cottirus.

„But still, what about our training?" - continued Sirius.

„With this kind of enemy it doesn`t matter, they are, or rather were astartes, they are better than us in every way and many of those on the planet have 10 millenia of experience behind them, we are just normal people, I`ve seen many well trained and experienced soldiers die in a blink of an eye when fighting them, against them we all are equally outmatched" - answered Cottirus.

„But always remember, they have betrayed our glorious Emperor and sided with their dark gods, when we fight them we have the Emperor`s favour on our side and who can stand aggainst him" - continued Cottirus.

Now Sirius was certain that it wasn`t a facade, Cottirus didn`t lose his smile nor his kindness, he was simply a nice guy and the squad saw that serving with him will be a pleasure.

„What`s your name soldier?" - asked Cottirus.

„Sirius, sir" - was his answer.

„I`m no sir, call me by my name, I understand that the situation doesn`t look good and that you doubt yourself but remember that you are not alone, that we are not alone, you are a part of this squad and we all are part of the imperium" - said Cottirus and his charisma worked on everyone around him, not just Sirius.

Unfortunately they couldn`t talk more as in that moment captain Konotov started shouting, they needed to be ready at their positions. They were coming and they were better prepared than the last time. Sirius was standing behind the third line of barricades along with two other people and Cottirus. They prepared their weapons as the plague marines and demons with support of some kind of blasphemous vechicles started their attack. It was a slaughter. They were decimating the frontline troops. Sirius and his comrades`s fire support was needed everywhere, lasguns didn`t do much. The enemy was very resilient, even if they were shot in the head they could still continue. Plasma guns and hotshot volley guns carried by Sirius`s squad and the stormtroopers had better results but it wasn`t enough. Slowly, but surely the enemy was advancing, first line didn`t even exist anymore. Now Sirius was even able to look those damned heretics in the eyes. Second line was at the moment fighting the plague marines and demons in close-combat. They were closer with each passing second. Their leader was at the front, he was slashing and cutting through them like they were air. Everything was looking like there was no hope for them. In that moment Sirius looked to the sky and saw many spaceships. They didn`t look like the corrupted ones of their enemies, that were the glorious vessels of the imperium. It hit him when he saw the drop-pods falling from the sky, they were saved.


	7. Zearet 1

Zearet was disgruntled. They just defeated the chaos warband pillaging the nearby sector and now without rest they were ordered to defend this hive-world.

„That`s not how the purest warriors of the emperor should be treated" - thought Zearet

The rest of his men thought the same. They were a demi-company of the Red Scorpions`s 4th company. Zearet couldn`t still understand his commander`s decision. Three companies and a few regiments of imperial guard for a planet that has nearly fallen into the hands of chaos. There was only one hive-city left to defend, if that planet ever had anything important to the imperium, it was now worthless. There were thousands of similar worlds, but when the call for help had been heard by the commander he immediately made a small force to help.

„Why do we need to help them when there are more glorious battles for us, the purest of the Emperor`s angels of death?" - Zearet asked his commander, despite their chapter`s well known discipline and obedience.

„Emperor`s servants are in need of help, and we have heard their plea for assistance. It`s enough for me to fight forces of chaos." - answered his commander, but it wasn`t enough for Zearet.

„In the grander scheme of things this world has no meaning and there`s no glory to be won in that battle." - said Zearet to his commander.

„Lieutenant, you still have much to learn if that`s what you think. Glory isn`t everything, maybe you`ll finally find the true purpose of the Emperor`s finest and the purest." - said Zearet`s commander in a harsh tone, that demanded obedience.

Zearet didn`t continue the dispute and surrendered himself to his commander`s orders. He was still angry, and he was contemplating commander`s orders while his men were getting in the droppods. When all of his men were ready he finally joined his personal squad in the droppod, they were ready to depart for the planet while their fleet was fighting the heretic plague-fleet. The droppods have been realesed, their destination was the southern entry to the hive-city. They could see from the orbit that the heaviest battle was currently in this location and it looked like the imperial forces have been losing this battle. Zearet`s demi-company prepared for the impact upon landing, they only had about 15 seconds till the battle. Finally they have made it to the surface and when their droppods opened the real fight begun. The clash of chainswords was creating a true cacophony of noises along with constant rounds of bolter fire and plasma guns. Zearet took his power sword and slashed at the nearest plague marine managing to cut him from the shoulder to the pelvis. Unfortunately it didn`t manage to kill him and he tried to attack Zearet with his rusty chainsword, but Zearet dodged his slash and this time went for the head. That was fortunately enough for him as his bloated corpse fell to the ground. After that Zearet managed to take a look on the battlefield. They landed in a very good spot, they smashed many of the attackers and they cut off the plague marines who were attacking the third line of barricades from reinforcements. His battle-brothers took the main task from the guardsmen who now served as support for them. After all they are just mortals, they can`t compare to the emperor`s purest. They could only look in awe and respect as they were saving their planet.

„But, are they worthy of my brothers sacrifice?" - thought Zearet still plagued by uncertainty.

Instead of trying to answer that question he focused on another thing that looked suspicious. It looked like they didn`t use everything they could on purpose, forces that were trying to break through their defences lacked leaders and any heavy support. It was just a bunch of plague marines with some plagueburst crawlers, it`s just like they were meant to die or at least suffer very high casualties. Zearet couldn`t understand what their commanders had in mind when they thought about their strategy.

„Maybe the warp has finally destroyed their minds?" - wondered Zearet as he was slashing and firing at the heretics.

They didn`t falter even for a moment but they were no match for the purest of the emperor`s angels of death. Zearet was sure that their purity was as blasphemous to the plague marines as their bloated corruption was to them. They were durable but the heavy weapons worked great against them. The ground was already littered with corpses of enemies when another droppod hit the road in front of them. Zearet knew exactly who was there and if he didn`t have a helmet his enemies could see his smile. From that droppod came brother Zetenius in the form of a dreadought equipped with a plasma canon. His single shot destroyed one plagueburst crawler and his other hand smashed a plague marine. Brother Zetenius was a veteran of thousands of battles and the oldest member of the 4th company. He was unfortunately gravely wounded in their fight with the Word bearers`s warhost by the bloodthirster that those fanatics summoned upon the planet with the help of traitorous cultists. With his help the traitors were coming close to being annihilated, this operation was a succes...but their cassualties were higher than he expected. Generally such actions as dropping from the orbit in droppods right into the battle had a tendency to be gruesome, but he didn`t think that this easy battle would result in ten of his battle-brothers laying on the ground, lifeless, lacking certain limbs or rotting just a few minutes after they were dead.

„I underestimated the foul strength of the death guard" - Zearet thought to himself.

It was always sad to look as apothecary sergeants, something that wasn`t seen in any other chapter, needed to extract progenoid glands of fallen comrades, but it was crushing to see that some were impossible to extract, that was the hardest hit heretics dealt them. Zearet didn`t have time to grieve there were many more battles ahead of them. Yet, his mind was still plagued by many thoughts, so many in fact that he didn`t see the imperial guard`s commander aproach him and salute him. It took 10 seconds of awkward silence before Zearet reacted.

„What`s the situation captain?"- asked Zearet after he recognised the man`s rank.

„We lost one-third of the guardsmen defending this position, a bit of heavy weaponry and we need to rebuild the defences before the next attack" - answered local captain.

„Despite all of this we are ready to give our lives for the empire and our planet!" - declared captain.

„If nothing will change that will be certain" - thought Zearet to himself.

„That`s better than nothing, I don`t plan on losing all of my brothers on this emperor-forsaken planet" - Zearet added in his thoughts.

„It`s good to hear that, now go and prepare, that was just their cannon fodder" - ordered Zearet.

They will need to be ready for their real strength.


End file.
